Instructor Resource
Collins, Business Ethics 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
Instructor Manual
Chapter 7: Ethics Training
CHAPTER 7 LEARNING OBJECTIVES AND END OF CHAPTER QUESTIONS
After reading this chapter, you will be able to
7.1 Describe several basic considerations for designing an ethics training
workshop to build a high integrity work culture.
End of Chapter Question 1: How would you design an initial 90-minute ethics
7.3 Design an engaging code of conduct workshop.
End of Chapter Question 3: Which code of conduct workshop do you think
participants would find most engaging? Why?
7.4 Conduct an ethical decision-making workshop.
End of Chapter Question 4: How do you create an ethical dilemma narrative for
Instructor Resource
Collins, Business Ethics 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
CHAPTER 7 OVERVIEW
Individuals are more likely to discuss work-related ethical issues with family and friends than
coworkers or executives. A managerial challenge is to design workshops where employees can
discuss ethical issues at work. Ethics training can initiate dialogue around contentious ethical
CHAPTER 7 LECTURE OUTLINE
Suggested Time: 2 to 3 hours of class time is recommended to present this chapter.
I. Chapter Question 1: How would you design an initial 90-minute ethics
training workshop?
Extent of Ethics Training
Who to Train
II. Chapter Question 2: What are the different survey instruments you can use
to assess an organization’s ethical culture?
Typical Behaviors Experienced
Ethical Culture Assessment
Instructor Resource
Collins, Business Ethics 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
III. Chapter Question 3: Which code of conduct workshop do you think
participants would find most engaging? Why?
Code of Conduct Content
IV. Chapter Question 4: How do you create an ethical dilemma narrative for an
ethical decision-making workshop?
Apply the Systematic Rational Ethical Decision-Making Process
V. Chapter Question 5: Which ethics personality surveys would most help
employees gain a better understanding of their ethical nature? Why?
Ethics Personality Measures
VI. Chapter Question 6: How would you assess the success of an ethics training
workshop?
CHAPTER 7 SUPPORTING MATERIALS
Textbook Inserts
Ethical Dilemma Analysis
Tables and Figures
• Table 7.1: Ethics Discussion Guidelines
Instructor Resource
Collins, Business Ethics 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
• Table 7.2: Initial Ethics Training Workshop Outline
• Table 7.3: Ethics Training Workshop Options
Self-Assessment (in Vantage only)
• Self-Assessment 7.1: Patience
Thematic Boxes
• Ethics in Action: Coca Cola’s Code of Business Conduct Exercise
CHAPTER QUESTION 1: HOW WOULD YOU DESIGN AN INITIAL 90-MINUTE
ETHICS TRAINING WORKSHOP?
Regulatory bodies, such as the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, put pressure on organizations to
implement ethics training programs.
A survey of 71 Ethics Officers found the top five reasons for conducting ethics training are to
achieve the following:
• Enhance awareness of ethics in common situations.
Instructor Resource
Collins, Business Ethics 3e
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Ethics training also helps create a high-integrity work culture based on trust, and improves the
organization’s public image.
WHAT IS TRUST?
• Ethics training helps to create a culture of trust at work.
• Organizational trust refers to having a positive attitude that another member of the
organization will be fair and not take advantage of one’s vulnerability or dependency in a
risky situation.
• Trust has a cognitive dimension.
o Trust is developed based on careful reflection of past experiences with organizational
BENEFITS OF TRUST
• Trust eliminates psychological barriers separating employers and employees. The other
person’s goodwill and reliability are assumed in a trusting relationship, which allows for
Instructor Resource
Collins, Business Ethics 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
• Ethical organizations, which have high levels of trust, attract and sustain high quality
employees, customers, and suppliers. They also have low levels of office politics and
DISCUSSION ACTIVITY
Have students think about someone at work or a friend they trust. Why do they trust this person?
What did the person do to earn this trust? How have they responded when a person they
previously trusted violated that trust?
EXTENT OF ETHICS TRAINING
• Members of some professions are required to take ethics training as part of obtaining or
renewing their professional license to protect the public from incompetent practitioners.
WHO TO TRAIN
• Ethics training should be conducted throughout the organization.
• All employees, ranging from the CEO and board of directors to the janitor, experience
ethical dilemmas on a daily basis.
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SAGE Publishing, 2022
• Ethics training can help organizational leaders achieve consensus on how to address
difficult situations they encounter and how they will hold other employees accountable
• Long-term employees significantly shape the organization’s ethical tone. One long-term
employee’s denigrating comments about the organization’s ethical efforts can undo all
the managerial effort at aligning a new employee with the organization’s ethics.
DISCUSSION ACTIVITY
Ask students who work part-time or had jobs over the summer if they received ethics training.
Who else in the organization received ethics training? How often was it offered? What was the
content? What were the strengths and weaknesses of the ethics training? How could a weakness
be remedied?
WEB-BASED ETHICS TRAINING
• According to one survey, companies conduct more than 90 percent of their ethics training
STRENGTHS
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• Online ethics training programs are easy to implement at minimal cost.
• Web-based training offers a simple method for making employees aware of the most
common ethical issues. Software programs provide standardized information about legal
WEAKNESSES
• Ethics training requires dialogue. The best response to even the most cut-and-dried
ethical dilemma can be highly debatable.
• Web-based training by itself does not address all the nuances and contextual issues
DISCUSSION ACTIVITY
Have students explore the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ethics website at
WORKSHOP FACILITATOR
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• Facilitating an ethics discussion takes a particular skill.
• A good facilitator inspires self-learning among the participants by keeping everyone
focused on the main issues while being flexible to new issues as they arise.
• A human resources department staff person can be considered, but some employees will
not speak honestly in front of a human resources employee, particularly about ethical
issues, because they fear that their comments might have a negative impact on
performance evaluations and lead to termination.
ETHICS AND DISCUSSION GUIDELINES
• Table 7.1 provides “Ethics Discussion Guidelines.”
FRAMING THE TRAINING WORKSHOP
• Some organizations do not provide ethics training workshops because they believe it
suggests that their employees are unethical or that the organization has ethical problems.
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• There is no “one-size-fits-all” ethics training program, yet there are general trends and
ETHICS TRAINING PROGRAM DESIGN
• Some organizations only want to sponsor one ethics training workshop a year. If this is
• Table 7.2 outlines a more moderate initial ethics training workshop for addressing an
important issue during a 90-minute session.
o Have CEO or supervisor express support for the activity.
o Clarify workshop rationale, goals, and objectives.
o Present competitive advantages of maintaining an ethical work culture (see Chapter
1).
o Foster awareness of industry, organizational, or work unit ethical issues.
• Workshop relevancy can be created at the beginning of the workshop with a short quiz
about a complex issue—such as what the code of conduct says about conflicts-of-
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• The ethics training program content should be as specific as possible, targeting specific
behaviors and providing specific examples, but presenting the material in general terms
so as not to offend any specific employee.
DISCUSSION ACTIVITY
Have students design an ethics training program for college students. They should do so
independently and then share in small groups. Have small group representatives report out.
Assess the strengths and weaknesses of each group’s program design.
Table 7.3 summarizes nine very useful ethics training workshop options.
1. Typical Behavior Experienced—Present common industry or work task ethical
issues.
2. Ethical Culture Assessment—Assess the extent to which ethics permeates
3. Code of Conduct Analysis—Create a Who Wants to be a Millionaire or Jeopardy
4. Apply the Systematic Rational Ethical Decision-Making Framework—Provide
several real-life situations, along with the seven-question systematic rational ethical
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5. Create Business Ethics Scenarios for Discussion—Have employees create ethical
7. Ethics Personality Measures—Administer surveys that measure personality factors
and moral attributes associated with ethical behaviors, such as idealism/relativism,
ethical ideology, moral identity, Machiavellianism, and locus of control.
8. Benchmark to an Ideal Employee—Develop a profile of an “ideal employee” and
meaningful experiences.
CHAPTER QUESTION 2: WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT SURVEY INSTRUMENTS
YOU CAN USE TO ASSESS AND ORGANIZATION’S ETHICAL CULTURE?
TYPICAL BEHAVIORS EXPERIENCED
• Introduce employees to the most common ethical problems experienced in the industry.
• Ask the extent to which attendees have witnessed these problems.
CHAPTER QUESTION 3: WHICH CODE OF CONDUCT WORKSHOP DO YOU
THINK PARTICIPANTS WOULD FIND MOST ENGAGING? WHY?
CODE OF CONDUCT CONTENT WORKSHOPS
• Jeopardy
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• Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
APPLYING THE CODE OF CONDUCT TO SPECIFIC SITUATIONS
• Create workshop about “Outcome of Code of Conduct Violations.”
CREATE FRAUD AND THEFT EXPLORATION EXERCISE
• Nationwide, employee theft and fraud has been annually estimated to be up to $200
billion a year.
• According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), companies lose an
estimated 5 percent of their annual revenue to fraud.
• Table 6.5 outlines a fraud workshop.
• Fraud is criminal behavior usually motivated by an individual who has an unsharable,
desperate financial problem. Steve Albrecht’s “Fraud Triangle” provides a framework
that highlights three factors present in every fraud situation:
DISCUSSION ACTIVITY
Instructor Resource
Collins, Business Ethics 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
Have students independently respond to the following two questions about their current, or
recent, employer. Discuss their answers in small groups, and then submit recommendations:
CHAPTER QUESTION 4: HOW DO YOU CREATE AN ETHICAL DILEMMA
NARRATIVE FOR AN ETHICAL DECISION-MAKING WORKSHOP?
FACILITATION PROCESS
• Review the six-step facilitation process in Table 7.6, which is aimed at maximizing
interactive dialogue.
• Review Best Practices about requiring written responses to ethical dilemmas:
o Commits the person to a particular decision option
VIGNETTES
• The business ethics literature and Internet websites have many vignettes participants can
examine.
o Some vignettes are just one or two sentences long and open-ended, such as: What
would you do if a manager promoted a loyal friend and questioningly competent